Luke Owen reviews the first issue of Chris Ryall’s The Colonized #1
Part 1: “Minutemen in Black” – In this all-new miniseries, a spaceship crashes into a separatist camp and manages to reanimate the dead as well! It’s aliens vs. zombies vs. militiamen in a carnage-filled tale from the co-creator of Zombies vs Robots!
Well, it’s going to annoy me misspelling ‘Colonised’ for the next few months…
If there is one thing in the world that Chris Ryall likes to write about – it’s zombies. From his superb Zombies vs. Robots to the more recently concluded The Hollows, Ryall has a passion for undead creatures that are hell-bent on bringing the world to an end. The Colonized is no different.
The Colonized #1 is a good first issue for the miniseries as it introduces us to our characters, sets up plot and gives us an idea of how the story is going to progress. It’s also nice to see Ryall not take the obvious route and have his Aliens come down to Earth simply to attack (à la Mars Attacks) and instead head down the path of first contact. It’s a nice touch as it could lead to a betryal by the humans – leading to a three-way rumble. The Aliens themselves don’t really have much in the way of personality from first impressions – but I’m sure get into that at some point.
However it’s not a perfect opening issue. Some of the plot exposition is kind of boring and there is a lot of time spent on the locals standing around talking about politics instead of setting up the aliens and zombies. This does mean that the issue is paced brilliantly but once all the exposition is done with it flows a little better.
Drew Ross has done very well with the artwork for the issue and his design for the Aliens is quite good, if a little stereotypical. It’s certainly not as striking as Sam Keith’s on The Hollows but I think that Ross’ style works better for this type of story.
But what it all boils down to is – would I recommend The Colonized #1?
It’s a tough one to answer as I wasn’t blown away by it but at the same time I didn’t hate it. I’ve certainly got my issues with it but there is also a lot to like. If you’re a fan of Ryall’s work and you like comics with zombies there’s nothing to upset you here – but nothing to tickle your excitement switch either.
Originally published April 10, 2013. Updated November 6, 2019.
